UPDATE: Area manufacturer lays off 540+ workers

A parts supplier to Honda is among the newest reports of layoffs being made public by the state.

Green Tokai in Brookville began temporary worker furloughs on March 23, the company told the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services in a letter dated Thursday.

“It is our intention to reopen operations in early May, if possible, but reopening will depend on circumstances associated with COVID-19, which are unknown and out of our control,” Kelli Todd, Green Tokai human resources manager, said in the letter.

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Honda is the company’s largest customer, and that automaker has shut down all American operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2016, Green Tokai invested nearly $8 million in buildings and equipment in an expansion that was then expected to create 57 new jobs.

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Then in its 29th year, Green Tokai had 625 workers in Brookville and more than 300 at a Maysville, Ky. plant. The company is a maker of automotive weather strips, moldings and seals, born of a joint venture between Ernie Green Industries and Tokai Kogyo. Green’s share was later bought out.

In Dayton, financial services company CBCS wrote is laying off 17 employees, that company said in its own WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice) Act notice.

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